Entertainment

Everything you need to catch up on 'Insecure' before Season 3 premieres

Fans of Issa Rae's Insecure have been left wondering about the fates of best friends Issa and Molly and their crushingly cute but infuriating love interests for almost a year. Now, the end of the wait is nigh. Insecure comes back for its third season on Sunday, August 12.

Insecure is one of those rare shows that can make you choke on your laughter while tears are streaming down your face. It depicts the sometimes messy but always real story of a group of friends in Los Angeles.

Creator Issa Rae has said that it's a show "about regular black people being basic." Yet the show has still been hailed as revolutionary precisely because it treats the experience of being black amongst friends, in the corporate world, and in gentrifying neighborhoods, as a given, personal experience, and not a political statement.

Combining that perspective with Rae's self-effacing inward eye, and tenderness for the people and relationships that make life both good, and hard, is what makes Insecure a truly special show.

And now, we are so stoked it's back.

Last season tied up the series' most central storyline: the end of Issa and Lawrence's five year relationship, and their quest for closure. But there's a lot more in store for LA's finest, but still cringingly insecure, friends.

Before you hunker down for the Season 3 premiere, it's time for a catch up.

Insecure really builds on past plots, and even inside jokes: Molly and Issa say "Malibu" to each other, whenever they want to say they're being potentially painfully honest. That's a reference to a Season 1 episode in which a weekend in Malibu led to a blow-up fight and truth time between the friends, who are learning to be more honest with, and less judgmental of, each other. Keep up, folks!

Obviously the best way to get caught up is a good old fashioned re-watch. Have Saturday night plans? Cancel 'em. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder how so much talent (and hotness) gets packed into one 30-minute episode. If you haven't watched the show before, stop reading this right now and fire up that HBO Go.

If you are not devoted to HBO dramedy to the point of being antisocial, here's a guide to everything you need to know before diving back in to Insecure with Season 3.

Image: hbo

The relationship

The Season 2 finale ended with a gutting "what if" sequence that showed what Issa and Lawrence's life might look like — marriage, kids, and all — if they'd given each other a second shot after Issa's infidelity. But the fantasy was not to be.

With a much more real and relatable apology from both sides, a mutual confession of love, and a hug that broke a thousand hearts, Issa and Lawrence seemed to achieve what had been escaping them all season: closure, and maturity. Season 3 won't be about Issa and Lawrence, it'll be about what's next.

The best friendship

"I am so in love with you," Issa said in the Season 2 finale, after seeing the lengths that Molly went to in preparing a special dinner for her in lieu of a vacation Issa couldn't afford.

Molly and Issa have learned to be more honest with each other, while maintaining the silliness and loyalty that makes them BFFs. We know that through all the love interest ups and downs, the relationship that lasts, and maybe means the most, will be this one.

Issa

Issa is still a mess, but she's finally moving on. She's sleeping on her ex, Daniel's, couch, but the Season 3 trailer shows that their relationship has not turned sexual... yet. Clearly that will go down without a hitch. But also, with plenty of imaginary mirror free-styles.

Job-wise, Issa has learned some humility and responsibility at work. Frieda is back for the clueless white person lols, and the pair will continue to do thankless work for kids under their well-meaning and occasionally Ice Cube-quoting boss.

Molly

Good lord, Molly. Molly made some real progress in Season 2: She started going to therapy regularly! She started seeing a nice guy who made her laugh! She rocked a muumuu!

But Molly's final scene in Season 2 showed her letting Dro, who is in an open marriage, back into her life. Molly wants a husband, and her situation with Dro, a childhood friend turned married friend with benefits, is messy at best. With Dro, she might have not have employed the best interpretation of her therapist's advice to "get out of the should and live in the could."

Molly has another big choice to make, as well. She is by all accounts a badass lawyer, but feels that the White Men (TM) running her law firm don't value her: they gave her a "rising star" award, when what she really wanted was a raise.

Now, she's deciding between staying with her firm, or accepting a job offer from another, African-American run firm. Kelli lays out the conundrum perfectly: does she take the job where work might feel a little too comfortable, or does she stay in a prestigious environment, but one where she has to appease people who might feel uncomfortable with (and overlook her because of) her race? Molly's a smart and ruthless cookie, and it might all come down to cold hard cash.

Lawrence

All right. Bad news, folks. According to Issa Rae, Lawrence is not coming back for Season 3. As The Root pointed out, Lawrence leaving Issa's life is the biggest sign of growing up Lawrence could get. The exes got closure, they're moving on, and most importantly, they're Facebook friends again.

But that hasn't stopped the Lawrence stans from petitioning Rae to bring back everyone's favorite puppy-eyed bae. He's a complex black male character, which is something these audiences say there's not enough of — and they're hungry for. Unfortunately, the kitchen is closed.

Let's be honest, Kelli and Tiffany are the MVPs.

Image: hbo

BFFs (Kelli and Tiffany)

Tiffany is pregnant and being extra "extra," according to the Season 2 finale and the Season 3 preview. Meanwhile, Kelli is both celebrating the single-hood and achievement of the friends, while not mincing words with Issa about the deplorable state of the protagonist's finances. Honestly, give these two a spin-off.

The neighborhood

Season 2 ended with an attempted rebrand of Issa's traditionally black neighborhood of Inglewood, into a coffee shop and "young white couple"-filled "I-Wood." Issa unfortunately has had to move out of her classic LA apartment complex, The Dunes. But clashes with clueless baristas and white transplants are sure to come.

The music

Every season,Insecure has woven in the music and lyrics of one artist like an easter egg for the hip-hop lovers among us. Season 1 featured the always emotive Drake, and Season 2 embedded the music, lyrics, and even likeness of Frank Ocean. That season ended with Frank Ocean's "Biking (Solo)," panning out over the south-east neighborhoods of Los Angeles, a love letter to the weird beauty of the sprawling city and the people within it.

It might not be clear from the Season 3 premiere who Rae chooses this time. But we'll be on the lookout.

Due North

One of the more hilarious highlights of Insecure was the fictional soap opera about slavery and forbidden love that the friends watch on TV, Due North. Stunningly, the show-within-a-show stars Regina Hall as the slave Ninny (who is learning to read!) and her "master" (ugh) played by the babely Scott Foley.

Will Hall and Foley be allowed to be together? Will the creepy child who's always watching them spill the beans? Only Season 3 of Insecure will tell!

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